Boulder library hosts new makerspace for all ages

Cutting-edge machinery on hand for learning, invention

About 20 years ago, David Farnan was working at a library in Florida, when a colleague stopped in to show him Google, then only a few weeks old. They wondered if they'd both be out of jobs soon.

"It was revelatory. And everybody said libraries were done," said Farnan, now the director of the Boulder Public Library, in an interview Friday.

But libraries quickly figured out that public computing would improve their communities. Today, Farnan hopes a new program will do the same for Boulder, by creating a space where people of all ages use cutting-edge machinery to learn and invent.

In a hidden corner on the north end of the newly renovated facility sits BLDG 61 — the letters stand for "Build Learn Design Grow"; 1961 was the year that part of the building opened - and its one in a growing number of makerspaces in American libraries.

Joe Moore, of Boulder, works to spin yarn with a drop spindle while Janet Hollingsworth watches during a class at BLDG 61 MakerSpace inside the Boulder Public Library in Boulder on Friday (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

None, however, have the capacity of Boulder's makerspace, which opened last month and boasts woodworking and metals shops, a laser cutter, three 3D printers, a ceramics kiln and, soon, a glass-fusing machine.

"This is socialism working," declared a giddy Joseph Moore, 50, after his first session in the space. Retired from the pizza business, he's planning to make a chess set of pieces he'll print and then contain in a box made of puzzle pieces cut with lasers.

"This is just incredible," Moore said. "It's a modern, state-of-the-art fabrication plant. Good god, just look at what they have in here. You can make anything!"

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In theory, that's very close to true. And while the library asks that users pay the typically nominal cost for materials the machines use, like wood, acrylic and plastic, the program is cheap, too. All the equipment, though highly specialized, was covered by the Library Foundation, and cost less than $200,000. The space is free for walk-ins and library members alike.

"In some ways, it's just an extension of what we've always done," Farnan said. "And that's giving people the access to the tools they need to be literate in modern society."

Classes have already begun, and intensive workshops will start soon. Janet Hollingsworth, a BLDG 61 technologist, hopes that encouraging people to learn through play will inspire some to take on long-term projects, perhaps even prototyping an idea.

"We want to see companies get started here," she said.

Much of the space's programming will be for children, including an upcoming apprenticeship for girls from underserved communities.

"The experience kids have when they come in today isn't simply learning by reading," Farnan said. "Computational literacy is a huge tool in our society. So either they're going to be fed consumer technology the rest of their lives or they're going to take some ownership of it, and grapple with it a bit."

But the all-ages space is already drawing a diverse crowd. On a recent afternoon, a 96-year-old woman came in to learn weaving.

"And that was taking place next to a 3-year-old building with notch-blocks," Hollingsworth added.

Terry Prescott, 61, has already been in four times. Among his products so far: a 3D-printed business card holder and a laser-engraved portrait of a boat.

"I'd be hard-pressed to come up with something like that. But you come here, plot it into a computer, and you've built the stuff," Prescott said. "It's taking the ideas you had in your mind and bringing them to life."

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